Student – Page 39 – blog.college-counseling.com

The Artist Who Set Chile’s Student Debt Ablaze

Born in 1983 in the southern neighborhoods of Santiago, Chile, Francisco Tapia Salinas—better known as Papas Fritas—emerged as an influential figure in contemporary art despite having limited formal training. Tapia’s unconventional path led him to become an internationally recognized artist, but it was his provocative 2014 performance piece, Ad Augusta per Augusta (“To the Elevated by the Difficult”), that catapulted him to fame and solidified his place in the global art scene.

The title of the work was a direct reference to the motto of the now-defunct University del Mar, a private institution that had been shut down by Chile’s Ministry of Education. As the university’s closure left hundreds of students with substantial debt but no degree, Tapia was moved to take action. In an audacious statement of solidarity, he planned to “destroy the promissory notes and IOUs” that had burdened these students, who were trapped by years of financial obligations despite not completing their education.

On the day of the performance, Papas Fritas and a group of students seized the campus and stole documents worth over 500 million Chilean pesos (roughly equivalent to millions of dollars in student debt). The artist then set the documents on fire, offering the ashes as a powerful visual symbol of resistance and a rejection of the deeply privatized educational system. Tapia’s act of defiance was followed by his self-reporting to the authorities.

In a poignant five-minute video shared widely, Tapia declared, “It’s over, it’s finished. You don’t have to pay another peso of your student loan debt. We have to lose our fear, our fear of being thought of as criminals because we’re poor. I am just like you, living a shitty life, and I live it day by day — this is my act of love for you.” His words resonated deeply, especially among the university’s students, who were legally able to disavow their debts as a result of his intervention.

The minimal legal consequences Tapia faced in light of local legislation underscored the paradox of a system that prioritizes privatization over the well-being of its citizens. His artistic intervention, which boldly confronted both the educational establishment and Chile’s deeply entrenched financial inequities, has since been hailed as an iconic piece of contemporary Chilean art.

Ad Augusta per Augusta remains a testament to Tapia’s unflinching commitment to social justice, and his work continues to provoke discussions on the intersection of art, activism, and the privatization of education in Latin America.

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April 10, 2025

News Decoder helps launch digital student journalism tool

Gathering and assessing the quality of information is one of the most effective ways to develop media literacy, critical thinking and effective communication skills. But without guidance, too many young people fail to question the reliability of visual images and overly rely on the first results they find on Google.

That’s why News Decoder has been working with the Swedish nonprofit, Voice4You, on a project called ProMS to create a self-guided digital tool that guides students in writing news stories.

The tool, called Mobile Stories, is now available across Europe. It takes students step-by-step through the journalistic process. Along the way, they gain critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding about the information they find, consume and share.

It empowers students to develop multimedia stories that incorporate original reporting for school, community or global audiences, with minimal input from educators. It comes with open-access learning resources developed by News Decoder.

After a decade of success in Sweden, Voice4You partnered with News Decoder to help make the tool available across Europe and the globe. Throughout the ProMS project, new English language content suitable for high schoolers was developed and piloted in 21 schools in Romania, Ireland and Finland. The Mobile Stories platform has demonstrated remarkable potential in building student confidence and media and information literacy by providing a platform and an opportunity to produce quality journalism.

From story pitch to publication

Using the new international version of Mobile Stories, students have already published 136 articles on mobilestories.com, with another 700 currently in production. Their topics range from book reviews and reporting from local cultural events to in-depth feature articles on the decline in young people’s mental health and child labor in the fast fashion industry.

“The tool looks like a blogging platform and on every step along the way of creating an article, students can access learning materials including video tutorials by professional journalists from around the world, articles and worksheets,” said News Decoder’s ProMS Project Manager Sabīne Bērziņa.

Some of these resources, such as videos and worksheets are open access, available to all.

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April 10, 2025

Wraparound Support Network Aids College Student Math Completion

Corequisite educational models are tied to higher pass and completion rates for students compared to remedial education, but ensuring learners are passing college-level courses often requires additional institutional investment.

Middle Georgia State University reimagined its corequisite education model to embed tutors, peer mentors and success coaches in entry-level math courses. Now, students who are falling behind are identified on a weekly basis, allowing for targeted and individualized outreach.

After the first term of the initiative, passing rates grew over 10 percentage points and withdrawals decreased, encouraging the university to scale the intervention to English courses and, starting next fall, STEM courses with high failure—D or F—or withdrawal rates.

What’s the need: Middle Georgia State offers 29 sections of its corequisite math course, Qualitative Reasoning. The course has seen stagnant success rates over the past few years, even though the number of students enrolled in corequisites grew, said Deepa Arora, senior associate provost of student success at Middle Georgia State.

Students who didn’t pass the class were less likely to stay enrolled and progress, prompting institutional leaders to consider new ways to engage these learners.

How it works: The solution was to create a support network of professionals who assist learners.

Faculty members are at the center of the initiative, flagging at-risk learners who are missing goals or failing to submit work.

From there, student success coaches, who are embedded in the course’s learning management system, reach out to those students to share resources, create a success plan and make referrals. Coaches also initiate a follow-up a week later to see if students have completed any action.

Depending on the student’s area of weakness, success coaches funnel them to one of two types of student employee: an embedded tutor or a peer mentor.

Embedded tutors address primarily academic concerns, such as low grades. Tutors attend class sessions, provide content-specific coaching and host review sessions as well as set up appointments for learners who need additional assistance, Arora said.

Corequisite learners who may be missing or not participating in classes are referred to a peer mentor, Arora said. In addition to teaching academic skills, peer mentors focus on a student’s sense of belonging and connection to the institution. They facilitate workshops, provide referrals to other support resources and connect students with classmates.

Both tutors and mentors are paid positions for which students must meet certain qualifications: They need to have passed the relevant course, be enrolled at least part-time and fulfill role-specific training.

Building better: The staffing changes were supported by revenue from tuition increases over the past two years. Faculty buy-in was also essential. “Faculty collaboration and cooperation with the success team was an integral part of the initiative and led to the development of a support ecosystem for the student,” Arora said.

Prior to implementing the new model, faculty members were briefed on the initiative’s design and asked to provide feedback and meet with the success coaches to build relationships.

Faculty didn’t receive any specific training other than guidance on how to identify at-risk students—those missing classes, earning low grades or failing to engage. Campus leaders also encouraged professors to send weekly communication regarding student performance and share related information about content with the success coach assigned to their section, Arora said.

The impact: The initiative succeeded in its goal of improving student pass rates: 73 percent of students who attempted the course in fall 2024 passed, a 14-percentage-point increase from the previous fall’s rate. (Excluding withdrawals, 77 percent of fall 2024 students passed the course.)

One trend the university noted was that the students who did fail were primarily in the online sections, suggesting that improvements to the in-person experiences were moving the needle.

Additionally, the connection between faculty and success coaches broke down institutional silos through ensuring timely identification of barriers and sharing of best practices. Success coaches appreciated being embedded in the learning management system, as it gave them greater insight into where the students needed help.

Support staff also noted increased student use of resources.

What’s next: After the initial positive results, university leaders chose to extend the initiative this term to include all sections of Composition I and its corequisite support courses. “The plan is also to extend this strategy to all sections of Anatomy and Physiology I and II where additional support is needed to improve their success rates,” Arora said.

The university will also invest in additional focus on online courses to close success gaps there.

Do you have an academic intervention that might help others improve student success? Tell us about it.

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April 10, 2025

The power of pre-arrival student questionnaires

If you knew more about your incoming student body what would you do to change your pre-arrival, arrival and orientation, and induction to study practices?

For example, if you knew that only 30 per cent of your incoming undergraduate students had experience of accessing learning materials in a school/college library, what library resource sessions would be provided on entry? Lack of library experience is exacerbated by the fact that since 2010, over 800 public libraries have closed in the UK.

If the course and IT team knew that over one-third of new postgraduate taught students had limited or no experience of using a virtual learning environment, what enhanced onboarding approach could be adopted?

If you knew that 12.4 per cent of undergraduate and 13.5 per cent of postgraduate taught students decided to study at a university closer to home due to the cost of living crisis, what teaching delivery pattern and support would you put in place for students who have a long commute?

If you knew for 43.7 per cent of UG and 45.4 per cent of PGT respondents, their attendance in their last final year of study was 80% or below due to 34.6 per cent of undergraduates and 25.0 per cent of postgraduate taught students experiencing mental health and wellbeing issues, what support would you put in place?

And if you knew that at undergraduate level, male respondents stated they were three times more likely to use sports facilities compared to mental health services, how could you promote mental health and wellbeing through sports?

All of these examples are taken from previous iterations of pre-arrival questionnaires (PAQs), run at various universities around the UK.

A lack of knowledge

As a rule we know very little about the prior learning experiences, concerns, worries, and expectations of university study of our incoming students. It is an area where limited work has been undertaken, and yet it is such a critical one if we are to effectively bridge the transition from secondary to tertiary education.

We have no idea about the different experiences of our incoming students by student characteristics, by region, or by type of institution. If we did, would institutions continue to be weighed, measured and judged in the same way as is currently the case?

Through my (Michelle’s) own learning journey as a mature, working-class, mixed-race female whose parents had no educational aspirations for me, when I finally went to do a degree at a polytechnic, I struggled to get the support I needed especially in terms of learning how to learn again after a five-year study break.

I was treated exactly the same as my 18-year-old classmates who had come straight from school. Assumptions were made that I should know and remember how to learn, and this was made very clear in negative feedback . But as we know, learning at school and college is different to university, and if you have been out of education for a while it can be a daunting experience reengaging with how to learn.

In the various roles I have undertaken and through the creation of my whole university integrated student experience model (SET model), I recognised that to enable effective change to happen not only in the learning sphere but also the support one, we needed data to understand where and how to make change. So over 20 years ago, I started creating and undertaking pre-arrival academic questionnaires (PAQ) at undergraduate and postgraduate taught level to get insight into different prior learning experiences and how these may impact on concerns, worries and expectations of higher education.

Purpose of the PAQ

NSS metrics are informative but it is only a snapshot of the university experience of those that made it nearly to the end of their degree. It does not reflect the voice of incoming students, and it does not provide any real time indication of what kind of support new students need.

The PAQ (formerly called the “entry to study survey”) is a powerful tool. Results can challenge change the assumptions of staff and university leaders, in terms of what they think they know about their incoming students. As with the postgraduate taught and postgraduate research experience surveys (PTES and PRES), the questions evolve to take into account of a changing environment, and the impact it has on our students (including things like Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis).

The PAQ also provides a meaningful course activity early on. It gets students to reflect on their learning, both on their past learning journey and expectations of university study. Students answer a range of questions across six sections that cover prior learning experiences, concerns on entry, how they expect to study at university, identifying what they see as their priorities in the coming year, their strengths and weaknesses, and expected university study outcomes. As it is delivered as a course activity, students engage with it.

Within three weeks of the PAQ survey closing, students get the headline findings along with relevant support and advice. This shows them that they are not alone regarding prior learning experiences, any concerns or worries they may have, and they know that their voice has been listened to.

The information gleaned from the PAQ helps inform every area of a university’s work from Access and Participation Plans to recruitment, orientation and induction to study to policy and support.

A national pilot

In September 2025, AdvanceHE and Jisc, funded by the Office for Students will commence the first of two annual waves of a national pilot in England, using the UG and PGT PAQ work I have undertaken at the University of East London and other institutions The aims and objectives include:

To establish consistency in how the sector collects and acts upon information from students upon arrival around their learning styles, expectations, challenges and requirements.
To drive dedicated activity at the local level to close the gap between expectations, requirements and the actual experience upon arrival.
To provide robust data-led evidence to enable institutions to address inconsistencies in how different groups of students (for example by social background, qualification type, geography and demographics) begin their learning and develop a platform to progress to good outcomes.
To create a fuller understanding across the sector of the Pre-arrival experience, providing evidence for wider policy making and cross-sector activity.
To support providers in delivering a range of practical outcomes across different student groups, including improved wellbeing and belonging, improved continuation and attainment. Earlier and preventative intervention should further contribute to higher progression to further study or employment.

The questions in the PAQ contribute valuable insights and knowledge that align with the themes in the University Mental Health Charter.

How can you get involved in the National PAQ Pilot

Participating is free of charge (although a Jisc Online Surveys licence is required). As a benefit of participation, participants will receive fast turnaround results, detailed benchmarking reports, resources to boost participation and an invitation to an end-of-cycle dissemination conference.

In return for free participation, institutions are asked to proactively distribute and promote their survey at course level, drive transformation activity on the back of the results and develop a case study for each year of participation.

We are currently welcoming expressions of interest as we look to confirm participation with a representative sample of 20-30 institutions in each year of the pilot. Please complete the survey form with your expression of interest by the end of April 2025, and we will be in touch soon.

To raise specific questions or to set up a dedicated discussion please contact [email protected] or [email protected].

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April 9, 2025

List of Schools Where Student Visas Have Been Revoked Increases to 46. Arizona State Tops List.

According to WeAreHigherEd.org, there are now 46 schools where student visas have been revoked. Arizona State tops the list at 50, followed by the University of Wisconsin-Madision (13), UC Davis (12), Rutgers (12), and Johns Hopkins (12) . The website includes profiles of a number of those students who have been detained. If you know of someone who has been abducted, you can report it here.

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April 9, 2025

UTS is showing how to achieve student equity now, not in 2050 – Campus Review

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has taken bold steps to reach its own equity targets in a time when sector voices are calling on institutions to take action.

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